Continence Clinic
Uroflow
A Uroflow test is often done in conjunction with other investigations to assess bladder problems by measuring how fast you pass urine (maximum urinary flow rate).
You will be required to urinate into special device which measures electronically how fast your urine is expelled. After you have emptied your bladder into the flow rate device, we will use an ultrasound bladder scanner to see if your bladder has emptied completely.
You will need to come to your appointment with a full bladder and we recommend that you drink 5-6 glasses of water 1.5 hours prior to your appointment. If you find it difficult to hold onto your urine when your bladder is full, you are more than welcome to come to the clinic earlier and drink in the waiting room.
The report will be sent to Mr George Koufogiannis for review and the Nurse will call you with results and any follow up required.
For further information and to make an appointment, visit George Koufogiannis Urology or you may call 1300 85 87 84.
Urgent PC
Urgent PC is a treatment for Incontinence, Overactive Bladder and Faecal Incontinence. The treatment is a minimally invasive therapy easily administered in a clinic’s rooms and involves having a thin needle electrode in your ankle which delivers electrical impulses which travel through the tibial nerve to the sacral plexus. This process is also referred to as neuromodulation.
An initial series of 12 treatments will be scheduled about a week apart. If you respond, following your course of treatment, you may be required to have a regular maintenance dose, but this will be assessed on an individual basis.
Patients will be required to complete a bladder diary which will be used to track improvements / change in symptoms.
Patients experience the sensation of the Urgent PC therapy in different ways, and they often describe the sensation as “tingling” or “pulsating.”
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Treatment is typically well-tolerated by patients. Urgent PC offers many different levels of stimulation, so your clinician will be able to adjust treatment to suit you as well as address any discomfort that you might experience during treatment.
Because Urgent PC gently modifies the signals to achieve bladder and bowel control, it usually takes 5-7 weeks for symptoms to change. However, patients respond at different rates. In a review of about 100 patients who had success with Urgent PC, symptoms improved anywhere between 2-12 weeks. For about 20% of these patients, some symptoms didn’t improve until after 8 weeks.
There is no way to anticipate who will respond earlier, later or not at all. That’s why it is important to receive the 12 recommended treatments before deciding whether this therapy is an appropriate and effective choice for you.
Contraindications: Patients with pacemakers or implantable defibrillators, patients prone to excessive bleeding, patients with nerve damage that could impact either percutaneous tibial nerve or pelvic floor function and patients who are pregnant / breast feeding or planning to become pregnant during the duration of the treatment.
The risks associated with Urgent PC therapy are low. Most common side-effects are temporary and include mild pain / discomfort or skin inflammation at or near the stimulation site.
For further information and to make an appointment, visit George Koufogiannis Urology or you may call 1300 85 87 84.
Bladder Instillations
Bladder Instillations are done to treat severe bladder pain due to conditions such as interstitial cystitis or recurrent urinary tract infections and involves a liquid medication inserted into your bladder via a catheter through your urethra into your bladder. The medications used are similar to the chemicals found naturally on the surface lining of your bladder, and form part of your body’s barrier to toxic substances in your urine.
Prior to the instillation we clean your genital area with an antiseptic solution and squirt an antiseptic gel (containing local anaesthetic) into your urethra, we then pass a small, soft catheter into your bladder and empty any urine which remains. The medication is then instilled into your bladder slowly through the catheter, in approximately 100ml of fluid. The catheter is then removed and you are asked that you try not to pass urine for at least 2-3 hours. This allows the medication to treat the whole bladder lining. The medications used are not toxic so it is safe for you to pass your urine normally into any toilet.
You will be required to stay in the consulting rooms for 1 hour following the instillation to be monitored.
Treatments are usually done weekly with the Nurse (for a period of 6 weeks). Mr George Koufogiannis will discuss the number of treatments needed and the interval between each treatment based on your individual circumstances and your response to the first few treatments.
For further information and to make an appointment, visit George Koufogiannis Urology or you may call 1300 85 87 84.
